Celebration Friday – Life in Ordinary Time

The holidays are over. New Year’s resolutions have been implemented or abandoned and we’re back to life as usual. Ordinary time.

Some people call it “same old same old” with the inference that there’s something wrong with it, something unsatisfying and dull.

It’s understandable that we take such a dim view of the ordinary. Look at the way we study history. All those dates we had to memorize, all the people we read about and had to know, were people and events outside the everyday. Wars and plagues and mass migrations. Conflict and misery, it seems, are what make History, with the occasional victory thrown in to keep us all going.

But when you think about it, the majority of the history of humanity has been the day- to- day life that is deemed to uninteresting, too ordinary to merit History with a capital “H”. And it’s all the stuff that those folk caught up in History longed for with all their hearts: Mom’s weekday dinners, a smile from the next-door neighbour, the ineffable scent of home… the ordinary, the everyday.

I’m not proposing we settle into some kind of boring , thoughtless life. I’m really no fan of “same old same old” in the way it’s usually meant. Nor am I proposing a kind of sentimental lapse into the status quo. I much prefer to sit up and take a look around me and see things as they really are. Some things I like and want to keep and some things I’ll change. As that process continues, I find that a bit of attention, a bit of appreciation makes the everyday special.

So this weekend, as I go about my usual routine, I’ll appreciate it more, knowing that I’m making history. And hope to heck I’m never involved in Making History!

2 Responses to Celebration Friday – Life in Ordinary Time

Barb, I couldn’t agree with you more! Your post was perfect timing for me; I am so happy to have my usual routine back and yesterday that involved happily making chili and stew to fill my fridge and doing the daily things that make me love my life so much. Your post made me sit a little taller and be a little more proud about the history (little “h”) I am making 🙂 Thank you